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Dress for Social Work

May 16, 2009 permalink

To play the role of a social worker, Mariah Carey had to gain weight, throw away her makeup, get a scruffy brown hair style and dress in unflattering clothes.

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Wow! Mariah Carey ditches the make-up to play dowdy social worker in new movie

By Chris Johnson, Last updated at 12:31 AM on 15th May 2009

Notorious for her dedication to glamour, she has refused to travel without an army of beauticians and admitted sleeping with 20 humidifiers around her bed.

So it is somewhat unusual to see Mariah Carey looking more dowdy than diva-like in these shots from her gritty new movie, Precious, in which she plays a social worker.

Carey, 40, who had to put weight on for the role, looks almost unrecognisable, sporting an unflattering blouse and jacket with scruffy brown hair.

Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey dressed down for her role as a social worker in new film Precious, a look far removed from her usual glamorous image, below
Mariah Carey
She stars in the feature alongside newcomer Gabby Sidibe who plays Claireece 'Precious' Jones, a trouble teen who is made pregnant twice by her father

In the film, which is due out in the U.S. later this year, she plays the downtrodden character Mrs Weiss, a Harlem social worker assigned to an obese, HIV-positive woman who was made pregnant twice by her father.

The Grammy winner is hoping to earn respect for the gritty role after previous movie flops, including her quasi-biographical role in Glitter (2001) which was panned by critics.

In January, Precious premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize for best drama.

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey
Pretty in pink: The singer/actress last night at LAX Airport in Los Angeles

The film, originally called Push, is based on the novel Push by American author Sapphire and is set in New York in 1987.

It tells the story of overweight, illiterate New York teen Claireece 'Precious' Jones (Gabby Sidibe) who falls pregnant with her second child aged 16.

She is then invited to enroll in an alternative school in the hope it will transform her life.

Mariah Carey
Carey dresses in a series of drab outfits in the film

Newcomer Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe - who had never acted before - plays the title role after director Lee Daniels discovered her on the streets of the city.

U.S. comedienne and actress Mo'Nique also appears as the mother of Precious.

Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe
Sidibe plays a HIV-positive New York teen, pictured here with one of her babies

Source: Daily Mail

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